


This is not a game

by Mierke



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-10
Packaged: 2018-05-13 00:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5688352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was intense, and sometimes a little scary, and Amy's favourite place in the whole wide world to be on a night off. </p>
<p>Pre-slash Amy/Rosa, but mostly just Amy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is not a game

**Author's Note:**

> I have never actually played laser tag, so this is all my imagination. I can't vouch for how realistic it is.

Amy loved laser tag. 

Not at one of those places where all the trendy people went, though, or at hours when all the kids were playing, or even that one time they had done it as a team building exercise (and nobody had taken it seriously). No, there was this place, a hidden gem really within the streets of New York, where you could play in the middle of the night and in the near dark, a place where nobody thought of laser tag as a _game_ and everyone was fighting to _win_. 

She always thought of it as training, and she was a hundred percent sure that the practice had helped her catch a perp more than once. It was intense, and sometimes a little scary, and Amy's favourite place in the whole wide world to be on a night off. 

Except for tonight. 

Something felt off, _she_ was off, and she couldn't quite pinpoint the cause. It was something in the air, as if someone had entered the room who was familiar to her, and it was distracting. 

Maybe it was a smell, she mused, as she tried to refocus her thoughts to the sounds around her to be able to pinpoint her next victim. She carefully moved a few steps to the right, making sure not to make a sound, and effortlessly downed one of her opponents. His vest lit up - pink - and Amy knew he'd be glowing for 30 seconds, giving her time to get away, and then back into the field. Pink meant he had one more life left, and Amy wanted to be sure he couldn't immediately retaliate. 

She made her way through the darkness, still trying to figure out what it was that was bothering her. By this point, the need to know what it was was more distracting than the fact that something was there distracting her, but she couldn't help herself. 

As she heard someone breathing she moved a couple of steps backwards and leaned against the wall. The person breathing didn't seem to stir, and after counting to five, Amy moved swiftly to her opponent's position and made her shot. The vest flashed twice until settling on a disturbingly loud red, and Amy heaved a satisfied sigh as the person left the battlefield. Only four people left, a voice over the intercom told her, and she felt the same thrill as always as she neared the end.

One of those four was the one who had been so thoroughly distracting her, a voice in the back of her mind whispered, but Amy shrugged it off. She was the reigning champion - she hadn't lost a game in two months, and she was not planning on giving that up. Not even for-

Her vest lit up, the purple warning her she only had two lives left. The amount of light was so blinding that for a second she couldn't see who had hit her, and when it had waned off, she could only see their back. 

She would recognise that body and the attached long, black hair anywhere, though. 

What the hell was Rosa doing, invading her space? 

Amy could feel her heart rate speed up, and her breathing intensified. Slow down, she told her lungs; slow _down_ , she told her heart. In her head, she counted down the seconds to the moment her vest would go dark again. She'd have five more seconds of immunity to be able to make her way inconspicuously, and there wasn't a moment of that she could afford to waste. 

Especially not with Rosa in the field.

She heard movement to her right and fired without looking, her aim true even with thoughts of Rosa coursing through her veins. Her victim's chest lit up a bright red, and the intercom happily told her only three people were left.

Amy leant back against the wall, trying to gather her thoughts into some semblance of order. Not even half a minute had passed before the intercom told her only two people were left in the field. She didn't know how many lives Rosa had left - though she was sure it had to be Rosa, couldn't even fathom a scenario in which it wasn't Rosa - but she was more determined than ever to be the last one standing. 

She made sure she had a good grip on her gun, and slowly made her way over the terrain, stopping every few steps to listen. Rosa had always had this silent movement thing _down_ , but Amy knew what she was doing. She'd done it a million times before, and she would not, she just would _not_ let Rosa Diaz get the best of her. 

"Hey, Rosa!" she called – so technically she wasn't allowed to speak, but the rules were always a bit slackened during the standoff between the final two contestants. This time, she felt more than heard some movement to her left, and she had shot Rosa before the other woman had even known what was happening. Her vest glowed pink, and Amy waved a little wave to Rosa's glower as she ran to the other side of the arena.

Her breathing had quickened again, but this time it was the familiar adrenaline that was coursing through her veins. She welcomed it, welcomed how it heightened her senses. She would win this - she had two lives left for Rosa's one, and she would not again get lost in her thoughts (there would come a time for her to examine why it had been that Rosa had distracted her so much even before she knew it had been Rosa, but now was not that time).

She took a couple of deep breaths before she made her way towards the right, knowing she had to keep moving (it wasn't a rule per se, but it was somewhat of an unwritten one; when there were only two people left, staying still was considered sabotaging of the game). The dark was also slowly fading, all to prevent the game from going on forever.

Suddenly, Rosa was right in front of her, and they fired at pretty much the same time - Rosa's vest glowing a satisfying blood red, while her own flashed bright green. 

Amy threw her hands up in the air and let out a victory cheer. 

She'd expected Rosa to glower, but instead, the other woman seemed to look at her with more respect than ever. 

"I'd heard about you," she said. "Needed to see for myself. Congrats. You were amazing."

She was gone before Amy could respond, and a warm happiness settled over her. Because she had won, she told herself as she left the arena to see her name flashing above the door. Because she was still the reigning champion. Because this was not a _game_ , and winning _mattered_.

That winning had never made her this happy before, well, that was something that was easy to ignore.


End file.
